California

FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT CALIFORNIA - PAGE 4

NEW DELHI: Prices of Almond california and almond kernal gurbandi firmed up on the local dry fruit market on Tuesday on stockists buying influenced by restricted arrivals. Elsewhere, prices of other dry fruits to continued to rule steady on little doing. The volume of business was small. Traders said tight stocks position following restricted arrivals from overseas markets gave push to selective prices. Almond california prices went up by Rs 50 to conclude at Rs 7,300 per 40 kilos against previous close of Rs 7,250.

VENGURLA: His speeches have all the elements of the tried-and-tested Shiv Sena formula, perfected over the years. The Sharad Pawar-Congress-Sonia bashing, reverential references to Shivaji Maharaj, rebuking and scoffing at gatherings for the last time they did not vote for the Sena and a smattering of adult jokes to bring in the laughs. But a closer look reveals that Shiv Sena's young turk, Raj Thackeray, now has a different message. Canvassing for the Sena through rural Maharashtra, he is focusing on the youth and asking them to set aside their hang-ups about culture and tradition.

Acheer and a yawn for the proposed Foreign Educational Institutions (Regulation of Entry and Operations , Maintenance of Quality and Prevention of Commercialisation ) Bill. To any extent that it expands and enhances India's higher education sector, it deserves to be welcomed. But such a law is unlikely to open the floodgates for foreign providers of quality education. The reality is that 'for-profit' describes hardly any of the world's best institutions of higher learning.

SACRAMENTO: A dangerous layer of heavy snow covered the Northern California mountains, and a levee break flooded hundreds of homes in Nevada on Saturday as a major storm continued pummeling the US West Coast. Thousands of homes and businesses had been blacked out in California, Oregon and Washington and thousands of residents had been told to leave their homes in mudslide-prone areas of Southern California. The mandatory evacuation orders were later lifted, though residents were urged to stay away from their homes.

NEW YORK: California has become the first US state to ban use of trans fats, long linked to health problems and obesity, in restaurants and bakeries. Under a new bill signed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger yesterday, the restaurants are required to phase out the use of trans fats and excise them completely by 2010 and in all retail baked goods by 2011. Packaged food will be exempt. Earlier, New York City had banned their use from July 1 this year. Some other cities, including Philadelphia, have also made similar laws.

WASHINGTON: A bill to educate law enforcement officers about the religious significance of 'kirpans' has been vetoed by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who found it "unnecessary," drawing angry reaction from the Sikh community in the US. The decision came as a shock to the organisations, individuals and lawmakers who supported the bill. The veto was particularly surprising given bipartisan votes in favour of the bill in both houses of legislature, advocacy group Sikh Coalition said in a statement.

NEW DELHI: US Indians grouped as foreign-borns still queue up to California, New York, New Jersey, Illinois and Texas as their most preferred destination. These five states account for 58.4% of the total foreign-born population from India in the US. A foreign-born person is defined as someone residing in the US on census day but is not a US citizen at birth. Foreign-born population includes immigrants, legal non-immigrants?refugees and persons on student or work visas?

WASHINGTON: A researcher from the University of California in San Diego (UCSD) is teaching a course at his campus about designing technology for the developing world. But he is not standing in the classroom, giving lectures from halfway around the world in Mumbai via a remote Desktop. The interactive course is taught by Derek Lomas using various forms of web-based technologies, including wiki sites, video streams and e-mail. The course, "Design for Development: Developing Technologies for Developing Economies", aims to connect UCSD students to the problems of the developing world.

BANGALORE: California-based Digite, promoted by entrepreneurs from the Indian outsourcing industry, on Monday announced plans to enter India, Malaysia and Singapore with its web-based collaborative platform for IT process and outsourcing governance. Digite President and CEO, A V Sridhar, told reporters here the privately held company was entering India to take advantage of the large market. The two-year-old company currently has 16 customers, including BearingPoint, which is undertaking projects worth $1.5 billion using the product of Digite, he said.

UKIAH: Wine drinking is the easy part. What comes before that can be a bit more daunting, especially if your wine is produced the "carbon neutral" way. Master of this task is the Parducci Winery located in Ukiah, CA. This family owned and run winery is the first in the United States to achieve carbon neutral status. Parducci partnered with the California Climate Action Registry to calculate emissions of their greenhouse gases. The winery and vineyards then took measures to mitigate and offset those emissions.